Goudeaus Surprise
by rosieh1992
Summary: Michael Goudeau feels left out when he feels Penn and Teller aren't telling him something


Teller always thought Penn held some of the best parties he'd ever been to. There was always live entertainment and good company. He usually knew most people there, though there was always a few people new to meet. The past few parties he'd been to in the Slammer, he found himself in the same group as Michael Goudeau, whom he'd known, and worked with, for a fair few years. The pair never been particularly close, but always got along with each other.

The entertainment that evening was Extreme Elvis, which, although he was pretty unusual by most peoples standards, the majority of the guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Towards the end of the night, the power was completely shut out, candles were lit and placed around Penns huge outdoor swimming pool. As Extreme Elvis started the second half of his set from the shallow end of the pool Penn swam under the singer and lifted him onto his shoulders, most of the guests, including Teller and Goudeau, stripped and joined him.

The party eventually ended mid morning the next day, and as the guests started to leave, Teller found himself without a lift home. As he psyched himself to the long walk home, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned and was surprised to see Goudeau grinning at him. "You looked a bit far away there" the younger commented. "You busy now, or…?"

"No, I'm free pretty much all day now" replied Teller.

"How about a walk? There's something I want to discuss with you" Goudeau asked, gesturing the desert behind Penns back yard. Teller nodded in approval and the pair set off.

The Vegas sun emerged from behind one of the few clouds in the otherwise clear sky. Goudeau surveyed the landscape of the Mojave desert before him before turning to his companion. He usually came walking out here alone, and it was good to have company for a change. He wasn't surprised to see Teller squatting down several meters away, studying something on the desert floor.

He couldn't help noticing how golden Tellers hair looked in the sun. They had wondered about a mile out into the desert, discussing the party, and more than once on the journey he has been tempted to reach out and stroke it to see if was as soft as it looks.

Goudeau walked over to the older man before kneeling down next to him. A short distance before them sat a kangaroo rat. He felt a smile spread over his face as the two of them watched this tiny creature go about it's day to day life.

Eventually, when the rat had scuttled off, Teller stood and looked back towards the city, before turning his gaze to Goudeau, who had stood and was now brushing dirt off his knees. The younger man looked up to find Teller watching him and smiled, shyly looking away.

"You said you wanted to talk about something?" Teller asked, as the pair started walking again.

"I was just wondering if you had anyone in your life at the moment? Someone special I mean" Goudeau was looking straight ahead, but could sense a look of confused curiosity spread over Tellers face as he asked that.

"I can't say that there's no one at present no. You dragged me out here just to ask me that?" Teller said, a slight smile lighting his face.

Goudeau coughed, flushing slightly. "Well, I thought it may be, you know, personal. You never seem to talk about your love life, so I don't know if you wanted people to know if you were dating or anything. Plus Penn wanted to know."

"Why would Penn care? He hasn't taken any notice of who I date before" A confused note entered Tellers voice.

"I know just about as much as you do in all honesty. He just wanted me to ask you. It may be because he's with Sandra, and you're single"

"Is it though? You'd tell me if you knew, wouldn't you? Mike?" Teller came to an abrupt holt, a frown replacing his smile.

"Of course I would. But I don't. Sorry" Goudeau looked away quickly. He could tell Teller was getting a bit agitated, he normally called him nothing but 'Michael'.

"Please tell me what's going on. Not telling me won't help…" A look of pure annoyance crossed Tellers face as Goudeau's phone suddenly rang. Looking more than relieved to delay continuing this conversation Teller, Goudeau quickly scrambled in his pocket for his phone and, moving away from Teller, he answered it.

After a minute or two, Goudeau hung up and returned to Teller, not quite able to look him in the eye. "Sorry, have to dash off. Have to pick my son up. Was nice seeing you buddy" he said, giving Teller a quick pat on his shoulder before jogging away.

"I still need to ask you something! Michael!" Teller called after him. Goudeau simply waved his hand over his shoulder in dismissal, leaving Teller to vent his frustration on his surroundings.

_3 days later_

It was late Friday night, and Penn was changing out of his suit into his street clothes in his changing room. He had left Teller out talking to a couple of fans that had stuck around after the majority of the crowd had left. As usual, he had his music blasting out of his speakers, just the way he liked it.

It had been a typical day, the morning and early afternoon spent with his wife and kids in The Slammer, followed by making calls and answering e-mails, then a show in the evening. The one difference was he had been picking up a strange vibe from Teller for a couple of days now. He thought little of it though, as Teller usually had strange phases.

Once changed, he packed his stuff up, and went through to the monkey room. To his surprise, Teller was sat on one of the sofas, still in his suit, with a confused look on his face.

"Everything alright Teller?" Penn asked his smaller partner.

Tellers confused look just deepened as he lifted his head to look at Penn. He opened is mouth as if to speak, but no words came. Instead, he resumed his stare at the carpet, with the same confused look on his face.

"Hey man, spit it out. I'd like to head off, but can't leave you here like this" Penn said, frowning, putting his bag on the floor and sitting opposite Teller.

After a couple of minutes, Teller finally stirred, and uttered "I had a strange talk with Michael Goudeau after your party the other day"

"Strange? How?" Penns frown deepened. It wasn't like Goudeau to spend allot of time with Teller, as the pair had never seemed particularly close.

Teller leaned forward, still staring at the same place on the carpet. "He seemed to think you had something important to tell me. Any idea what he was talking about Penn?"

At hearing that, Penn stood and walked to the other side of the room, in order to hide the look of dread on his face. He knew exactly what Goudeau was on about, he just never thought the plan would take action so soon. "I'm not comfortable telling you at this moment in time"

"You know, Goudeau seemed pretty surprised that you hadn't shared this information with me yet, whatever it is. I just thought you would be comfortable telling me anything after all this time" Teller said, shooting Penn a reproachful look.

"It's not that I'm not comfortable, it's just, you know…awkward to say"

"Just spit it out Penn! It can't be that bad surely!" As the older mans voice rose, Penn could tell that Teller seemed to be getting really worked up about being excluded.

"Teller, please just calm down. You getting worked up like this really isn't making this any easier for me to explain myself, ok?"

The slight shake in Penns voice as he said that just seemed to irritate Teller more, as he started pacing the room. When Penn was sure that Teller would remain silent, Penn continued. "When you hear what I'm about to tell you, you'll understand why I didn't tell you before, why I was scared to. I don't expect anything but for you to hate me in the end."

"Penn, just say it! Not knowing has been bugging me for days now" Teller stopped his pacing and turned to the younger man on the couch.

"I want you to promise not to blow a fuse when you hear this, ok? I can't help it. We've known teach other for a long time now, I've always enjoyed…"

"Get on with it!" Teller snapped, interrupting Penns flow, stamping his foot on the floor.

"I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU OK?" Penn yelled.

At first, Teller was shocked at the volume that his partner had spoken, it being one of the few times he had heard Penn raise his voice. It took a couple of seconds for what Penn had said to actually sink in. "wh-what?" he stuttered, staring down at Penn, who was now looking ashamed and embarrassed.

"I'm sorry. I should never have told you. Goudeau should never have mentioned it to you. It's probably best if I just leave now" Penn stood up, and quickly made his way to the door of the monkey room, hating himself more as he felt a tear slide down his right cheek.

"Penn, wait…" Penn stopped half way through the door as he heard the slight pleading note Tellers voice. Fearing another outburst from the smaller man, he closed his eyes in preparation. He was surprised however, to feel a gentle hand on his arm, coaxing him to turn back into the room behind him. As he turned, he looked strait to Teller, whose face was still contorted into a mixture of surprise and confusion.

"I-I think we need to talk about this. I…" Seemingly lost for words, Teller shut his mouth and looked down at the floor between them. Unsure what else to do, Penn took Teller gently by the shoulders and guided him back to his original seat before sitting next to the quieter man.

"Do you hate me?" The taller man asked gently.

"Of course not" Teller replied in a heartbeat. "I'm just shocked more than anything."

"What's going to happen now? Are we going to stay working together?" Penn asked.

"Not doing so is out of the question. And I think we can work something out for the best" Teller said, looking down at his hands, which were clasped on his knees.

Although Teller didn't seem to be jumping for joy at Penns revelation, nor was he throwing Penn out of his life, and that, in the end, was more than Penn could hope for.

_4 months later_

Penn, Teller and Goudeau were sat around a small table on the set of BS, making slight last minute changes to the script for the most recent episode. The subject was cryptozoology, a subject he knew the pair sat before him looked forward to debunking, and in all honesty, so was he. As he casually gazed around the studio, he took in how quiet it was. Penn, Teller and Goudeau had arranged to come in early for editing, and the rest of the crew weren't due in just yet.

Goudeau couldn't help but notice that something had changed between Penn and Teller. He had first noticed the change soon after Penns latest house party, but it had grown more obvious to him as time passed.

"We got enough footage from those guys at Loch Ness, G?" Penn said, snapping Goudeau out of his trance.

"Erm, yeah. Managed to get a fair bit fro them actually" he muttered, sitting up in his chair

"Did I interrupt something then?" Penn laughed, and Goudeau couldn't help smiling back, appreciating the light that shone in Penns eyes when he laughed.

"Just lost in my own little world" Goudeau answered with a smile and a shake of his head.

It was mid afternoon, and the days filming was going well. The crew were just waiting for Teller to strip and return from his changing room in order to film the next part. Penn was entertaining the crew with his usual juggling whilst talking about the latest gun crime.

"But you know what they say. Guns don't kill people, people kill people, and monkeys do too, if they have a gun" Penn said, pausing every couple of words to concentrate on his juggling.

The slight click of a door closing caused Penn too look up. He smiled slightly before wolf whistling. Goudeau turned to see Teller walking across the room with an embarrassed smile, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

"Looking good, old man" Penn commented with a cheeky smile.

Teller gave Penn a withering look before turning to Goudeau for direction.

"Take the towel off and sit on the floor. Your cue will be obvious" Goudeau responded, pointing to the floor before Penn.

Maybe it was because he had known Penn for so long that he caught a micro smile dart across the taller mans face and an exited look flash through his eyes as Teller sat before him. He knew Penn had seen Teller in the nude before, but hadn't noticed such a reaction off him. He glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed. It seemed not, so Goudeau just shrugged it off.

Filming the scene went smoothly, and everyone felt happy about it after 2 or 3 takes. Teller had left to remove all the honey from himself whilst the rest of the crew were messing about on set. Goudeau, however, was sat away from the rest, leaning back in his chair, deep in thought.

"Penny for your thoughts"

Goudeau jumped slightly at hearing Penn whisper in his ear. The older man lowered himself down into the chair next to Goudeau and leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees. "What's up? You're usually more sociable than this."

"Just thinking about stuff" Goudeau shrugged, his face remaining neutral.

"Anything you want to share?" Penn asked. He watched as Goudeau opened his mouth as if to speak, just to close it again a second later and frown. At Penns inquisitive look, Goudeau leaned forward, imitating the way his colleague was sitting.

"Don't blow a fuse or anything when I say this, but I couldn't help notice that things have seemed a bit different between you and Teller for the past couple of months"

Penn turned his face away from Goudeau so he couldn't see the look of dread flit over his face. He should have known someone may have guessed at what was happening.

"What you've got to understand is that I didn't actually expect any of this to happen. Dreamed it yes, but never actually planned it" he said slowly. When Goudeau remained silent, he hesitantly continued. "It started a couple of days after that party. Teller cornered me into spilling my heart out to him, and since then we've been dating"

A look of pure shock appeared on Goudeau's face as he stared at his colleague and friend. "You and…dating? But I thought…Sandra and you…had you broken up then?"

"I ended it with Sandra the day before I told Teller I loved him" Penn said, finally feeling he could look at Goudeau again.

At that, Goudeau stood and walked away from Penn,, who instantly stood to follow him. Penn knew the smaller man was in shock, and didn't really blame him. As Goudeau reached the door, it opened as Teller walked through it, causing the two to nearly collide. Teller halted at the wide eyed look he was getting off the younger man.

"Goudeau, please. I know you're shocked, but I thought you of all people would understand" Penn whispered from behind Goudeau. This calmed him down enough that he felt he could turn back to look at Penn.

"You told him?" Teller gasped, looking over at Penn. "I thought we weren't going to tell anyone until we'd set a date!"

By this time, they had attracted the attention of the rest of the crew, and were well aware they had all stopped what they were doing to watch the action.

"Date? Date for what?" Goudeau asked, confused.

Penn sighed and turned to address the entire room. "Teller and I are to be married. We hadn't told anyone yet as we weren't sure how well it would go down. I just hoped some people at least were more accepting."

Goudeau knew that last comment was directed at him. He stepped forward so he was directly in front of Penn. He reached up with both hands and cupped Penns face with his hands, forcing the older man to look at him.

"When you told me about this, it was the biggest shock I've had in a long time, but that doesn't mean I don't accept it. You're one of my closest friends and even if you decided to marry a goat, I'd be happy for you, ok?"

At that, Penn couldn't help the tears spill down his cheeks. He looked at the smaller man, smiling up at him, and knew that things couldn't get much better.


End file.
